Hearing the first few lines of Asake's new song, "Yoga," one senses a shift in the singer since he rose to prominence last September. But it is not a very obvious change; in fact, you would miss it if you had not been paying attention to his lyrics. Listening to all twelve songs on his…
Listening to all twelve songs on his debut album, Mr. Money With The Vibe, one notices that, unlike many Nigerian pop artistes, Asake has no lines aimed at supposed enemies, real or fictitious. His song Nzaza had one such divertissement, but it is a muted one and so barely counts. By contrast, we know how it is nearly impossible to listen to a Burna Boy song without hearing a line or two that betrays a persecution complex.
Perhaps the singer has earned himself a few more enemies. Perhaps we are witnessing the paranoia that so often attends fame and success. Or perhaps the enemies he refers to are the many who criticised his less-than-perfect concerts last December. We will never know for sure. What we can say with all certainty is that the singer won’t be letting any naysaying derail his peace, or, as he phrases it, his “yoga.
But Asake is not only showing that he is beyond Amapiano , he is also showing he is beyond Nigeria—an understandable hubris, given his album’s transatlantic commercial success. He shows this by appropriating Mauritian culture; but perhaps his wanderlust is more emphasised by the song’s music video, which is directed by TG Omori. That the video comes with subtitles suggests the singer’s willingness to make his message, which is worded in Nigerian pidgin English, more accessible to non-Nigerians.